CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE PLEASURES OF EGG FARMING 



MUCH has been written on the profits of the poultry business4rom a 

 financial standpoint, and little of the pleasures, health and happi- 

 ness derived from keeping fowls. Blessed is the man whose choicest plea- 

 sure is his work. And how much more satisfactory is that work when we 

 realize that it gives all that this world has to give, health of body and 

 peace of mind and room to exercise all our faculties. Someone has 

 said : "Get your pleasure out of your work or you will never know what 

 real pleasure is." To the man who loves animal and plant life, who 

 revels in the sunshine out under the open sky, who is intoxicated with 

 the fresh air and the vigor of an outdoor life, to this man the poultry 

 business is an ideal business. To the man who loves close rooms and 

 musty volumes there is little for him in the poultry business. But if 

 you love freedom, love independence, and like to be your own master, 

 then go out on a little poultry ranch and live the natural life. The man 

 who gets out of bed in the morning with a dread in his heart of the 

 day's work before him has sadly missed his calling. Life is short, and 

 the first thing we know we are shuffled off without ever tasting of the 

 natural joys of living. Your work should be so wholesome, so inter- 

 esting, that you would spring from the restful night's slumber to meet 

 it. If you have found your calling, your work will be one long holiday. 

 But work to be a pleasure must be well done and bring results. Those 

 who fail in the poultry business get no pleasure out of it from the simple 

 fact that their work is not well done. Order, system and a fine adjust- 

 ment bring satisfaction in the poultry work as in other work. There is 

 no work which responds as quickly to thoroughness and order as the 

 work on an egg farm. Hens are such sensitive creatures, they respond 

 so quickly to good attention, that the pleasure of seeing results is 

 unlimited. 



"Better than grandeur, better than gold, 

 Better than wealth a hundred fold, 

 Are a healthful body, a mind at ease, 

 And simple pleasures that always please." 



The man is to be pitied who never sees the sun rise, who does not 

 know what it is to arise early in the morning and walk out among the 

 growing vegetables and grasp a hoe with a strong pair of arms and feel 

 life pulsating in every part of his body. 



The artificial pleasures of the cities cannot be compared to the 

 natural pleasures where the red-combed hens are singing and cackling. 



The question is, are you satisfied with your present vocation, or are 

 you forever dreaming of an afterwhile when you will be doing what 

 your heart so much desires? Are you tired of office work, of stupid 

 inside grinding, of being an automaton? Let me tell you there is 

 room for a good living, and all that this old mother earth ever gives to 

 any man right on one acre of California soil. The only question is, 

 can you so manipulate this one acre that your table will be spread 

 with the choicest products of the soil and the purest food from cow and 



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